Endless Days of Summer
by anonyMOUSE11
Summary: A ficlet about the night before Courcelette...


I'm not exactly sure about this one. I've held it back for a while, mostly because I usually stick to CSI stuff. If it's no good, I'll get rid of it. Yeah, and if you're still reading this after the optimistic intro, please review.  
  
The usual. Not mine. Also, spoilers (do you call them that with books?) for Rilla of Ingleside. Have fun.  
  
****  
  
Lt. Mark Richards ducked into the tent.  
  
"Blythe, it's..." he trailed off. A handsome young man in khaki sat there, his pen poised above what Lt. Richards saw from the heading was a letter. But that wasn't what had made him stop in his tracks. It was the expression in the man's eyes. They had darkened from their usual soft gray into a cloudy black. If one were to look far in those eyes, the world would have been laid bare to them, and the meaning of infinity would have become clear. Such a person was Walter Blythe  
  
****  
  
At the moment, his thoughts were elsewhere. He hadn't heard Lt. Richards enter the tent; in fact, he didn't see the tent at all. His soul was already somewhere else entirely.  
  
He had felt himself soaring out the door, past the place where they were to fight tomorrow. What was it called again-Courcelette? He flew past other weary soldiers such as him, fighting simply to stay alive. He saw the blood soaked fields that used to be prosperous farm land; he saw the bullet holes in each and every house of the towns he passed. And soon, he was out of France, skimming across the ocean, catching the foam of the waves in his face. Finally, he reached it. Glen St. Mary. Ingleside. Home. A place he had not seen for at least a hundred years it seemed.  
  
A boy ran out the door laughing, chased by a brown-haired young girl. Two heads, one red and one black, were bent over a book, walking at a more sedate pace. A very brown boy and his chubby, toddling little sister were shooed out the door by a stern woman, whose threats didn't fool anyone who knew her. All six of them made their way to their magic spot -- Rainbow Valley.  
  
Walter remembered those days, days of summer that stretched on endlessly. The lazy feeling that they were immortal, living as children forever playing in Rainbow Valley, land of dreams. They would imagine fighting epic battles, but wars never happened nowadays. They would yearn to grow up, never quite comprehending what that meant. Always there would be tomorrow to finish the game they started. They didn't understand that there would be one day when no tomorrow would come.  
  
A shout, and suddenly the silence was broken by the yells of children chasing each other. The baby toddling behind, crying,  
  
"Wait for me! Thuthan thaid..." The oldest boy, Jem, scooped her up on his shoulders with a laugh. Walter smiled at her from his spot under a tree.  
  
"There, Rilla-my-Rilla! Now you can touch the sky." Shirley had run with Jem for a while, until he sat down abruptly, his shorter legs already worn out. The twins, Nan and Di, skipped and danced, their skirts puffing out and swirling around them.  
  
Walter watched as Shirley's legs got long enough to keep up with Jem. He saw Rilla grow to touch the sky without her brother's aid. He saw Nan and Di, still dancing, but with longer and longer skirts to swirl. Walter watched them all, as they grew and played there in Rainbow Valley, changing so imperceptibly that nobody noticed until it was too late. Until the war started, and they woke up with a jolt, wondering where their childhood had gone to so quickly.  
  
He saw Jem, dressed in khaki with a brave smile on his face, board the train with everyone watching and waving goodbye. He saw his mother and dad grow older and older at each headline about news from the front. He looked at Rilla grow to meet the challenges presented to her, rising each day to face the world.  
  
That was when it finally hit him. He was never to hear his mother's laugh, or his father's voice again. He'd never share secrets with Di, or go on adventures with Jem. And Rilla -- he would never really see what a beautiful, resourceful young woman she had become in his absence. He'd never see Ingleside or Rainbow Valley. Life for them would go on -- but for him, it was about to end. He had seen the Piper, and he understood what it meant. For him, there wasn't going to be a tomorrow.  
  
****  
  
Lt. Richards backed out of the tent slowly. He had the impression that to call Blythe back to the world would be a disastrous crime. He would leave the boy immersed in what might possibly be his last dream. The soul that had never quite been of this earth in the first place would soon be leaving, back to join its own. The eyes that had formerly been full of grand ideas and wonder at the world's mystery would be empty soon enough, without disturbing them now. Lt. Richard's walked away slowly, shaking his had in a dazed way. He had seen something in those eyes that had frightened him very much, because it was something he could not comprehend.  
  
****  
  
Many men had gone to their deaths that day. But, there was one who was different from the rest. The Piper had finally come for him, and at the moment before the bullet found him, he knew it, and welcomed him. There was a slight faraway smile on his face, as if he was once again in years gone by, with the people he loved. He had done what he needed to do for humanity, and now he was going home to his beloved Ingleside at last. 


End file.
